Diabetes prescription numbers topped 40m for the first time last year, according to official figures. The number of diabetes prescriptions rose by nearly 50% in six years, from 27.1m in 2005-06 to 40.6m in 2011-12, data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) shows.

Net cost of diabetes drugs also rose by just under 50% during the same period, according to the report. In 2005-06 diabetes drugs cost the NHS £514m. Last year they cost £760.3m.

The growth is much greater than the rise seen in prescription numbers overall, at 33%. As a result, diabetes drugs take up a bigger share of both total drugs dispensed and the total net cost to the NHS each year.

While the overall cost of drugs to the NHS fell last year by 1%, the diabetes drugs bill increased by nearly 5%.

Tim Straughan, HSCIC's chief executive, said: "Our figures show diabetes is having a growing impact on prescribing in a very obvious way, from the amount of prescriptions dispensed to patients in primary care to the annual drugs bill costs to the NHS.

"Other reports we produce, such as our National Diabetes Audit and the Quality and Outcomes Framework, also demonstrate the impact of diabetes is widespread in all areas of the health service, from pharmacy to hospital care. When all this information is considered together, it presents a full and somewhat-concerning picture of the increasing impact of this condition."